Perplexity's AI search engine can now buy products for you

Buying things online has always been a fragmented chore: research in one tab, open Amazon in another, compare prices, and manually check out. Perplexity is now trying to collapse that entire funnel into its chat box.

The AI search engine just rolled out a suite of shopping tools, headlined by a feature that lets artificial intelligence make purchases on your behalf.

One-click buying without leaving search

The new checkout capability is called "Buy with Pro" and is currently rolling out to paid Pro subscribers in the United States.

When US Pro members search for a product, eligible items will display a dedicated button. Hitting it automatically places the order using pre-saved shipping and billing details, meaning you never have to leave the search interface.

To sweeten the deal, Perplexity says every single order placed through Buy with Pro comes with free shipping. For products that lack direct support, the engine simply redirects you to the merchant's checkout page.

When asked if Perplexity takes an affiliate cut or kickback from these transactions, company spokesperson Sara Platnick said, "As of now, we do not," emphasizing that there is currently no commercial element tied to the checkout flow.

Visual search and perks for merchants

Non-paying users will not get the auto-checkout button, but they will see newly redesigned product cards when searching for goods. These cards aggregate photos, pricing, and AI-generated summaries of key features and customer reviews.

Perplexity also launched "Snap to Shop," a visual search feature similar to Google Lens that lets Pro subscribers snap a photo of any physical item and ask follow-up questions to find it online.

On the merchant side, Perplexity is quietly courting retailers with a new partner program. Participating sellers get behind-the-scenes insights into user search and shopping trends involving their inventory. In exchange, enrollment increases the likelihood that Perplexity surfaces and recommends their products to shoppers.

Why it matters

Turning an answer engine into an execution engine is the holy grail of consumer AI, and Perplexity is pushing hard to beat Google and Amazon to the punch.

For shoppers, the pitch is hard to argue with: zero friction, unified checkout across disparate stores, and subsidized free shipping on a $20-a-month subscription. The catch, of course, is trusting an AI agent with your payment credentials and crossing your fingers that fulfillment and returns do not turn into customer support nightmares.

For the broader industry, this changes the battlefield. If discovery, comparison, and purchase all happen inside an AI conversation, the traditional search ad model and retail shelf-space bidding lose their leverage.

We think subsidizing shipping without taking a revenue cut is a clever user-acquisition stunt, but it is not sustainable forever. More importantly, promising merchants that joining their partner program increases the chance of being recommended looks like a slippery slope. The moment organic product recommendations start favoring commercial partners, the trust Perplexity built as an objective research tool could quickly erode.